Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art

By Idries Trevathan

A unique investigation into the aesthetics of colour in Islamic art revealing its deeper symbolic and mystical meanings.

The experience of colour in Islamic visual culture has historically been overlooked. In this new approach, Idries Trevathan examines the language of colour in Islamic art and architecture in dialogue with its aesthetic contexts, offering insights into the pre-modern Muslim experience of interpreting colour.

The seventeenth-century Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, represents one of the finest examples of colour-use on a grand scale. Here, Trevathan examines the philosophical and mystical traditions that formed the mosque’s backdrop. He shows how careful combinations of colour and design proportions in Islamic patterns expresses knowledge beyond that experienced in the corporeal world, offering another language with which to know and experience God. Colour thus becomes a spiritual language, calling for a re-consideration of how we read Islamic aesthetics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Saqi Books
• Release date: Feb 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9780863561900

Idries Trevathan

Idries Trevathan is a curator and conservator of Islamic art collections. He regularly works on conservation projects and has conducted technical colour studies on a range of Islamic art objects, including the Malay Qur’an manuscripts and Ottoman porticoes in the grand mosque in Mecca.